diff --git a/arch/powerpc/mm/pgtable_32.c b/arch/powerpc/mm/pgtable_32.c
index 38ff35f2142a..22972cd83cc9 100644
--- a/arch/powerpc/mm/pgtable_32.c
+++ b/arch/powerpc/mm/pgtable_32.c
@@ -266,7 +266,8 @@ int map_page(unsigned long va, phys_addr_t pa, int flags)
 		/* The PTE should never be already set nor present in the
 		 * hash table
 		 */
-		BUG_ON(pte_val(*pg) & (_PAGE_PRESENT | _PAGE_HASHPTE));
+		BUG_ON((pte_val(*pg) & (_PAGE_PRESENT | _PAGE_HASHPTE)) &&
+		       flags);
 		set_pte_at(&init_mm, va, pg, pfn_pte(pa >> PAGE_SHIFT,
 						     __pgprot(flags)));
 	}